Friends remember longtime Mamie Doud Eisenhower Museum director's love of history

When Larry Adams shared Boone County or presidential history with tourists or Iowa residents, he shared parts of himself, his friends said after the Boone County historian died in a car crash Monday near Granger.

Adams, 75, served as the director of the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Birthplace Museum from 1980 until his retirement in 2006. Adams outlived his father and brother, so he relied on a close group of friends in the central Iowa city of 12,500 residents for support. He died Monday morning when a semi-trailer driving south on Iowa Highway 17 failed to yield to the car Adams rode in and turned west in front of Adams’ car.

The driver of the car was taken by air ambulance to MercyOne Des Moines hospital and another passenger was flown to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

“His life was this stuff,” said his friend of more than 30 years Mel Pins. “Larry was the nicest, most affable person anyone would want to be, but he was also probably one of the more eclectic, eccentric individuals you'd ever meet as well."

Pins, a Des Moines resident who works for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, met Adams more than 30 years ago when Adams called Pins on a lark. Adams read a Des Moines Register story where Pins and his military re-enactment group were featured as the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of World War II.

He wanted to connect with Pins because of their shared interest in history, Pins said. Adams became instrumental in advancing Pins’ work to help veterans, Pins said.

Adams grew up in Boone. His father Larry managed a local Fareway store and was on Fareway’s board of directors. Adams' brother Jon managed several Fareway stores in the area. Jon Adams died in 2005 at age 55.

“He really didn’t have a family,” Pins said. “His family was the care about the community.”

Neil Goeppinger, a Boone farm manager, met Adams drinking beer in the back of Duffy’s Appliance Store at 822 Story Street in Boone around 1977. At that time Adams worked as a private investigator. Adams lived in a second-floor apartment of a downtown Boone building owned by his family.

“He did not live high,” Goeppinger said. “He always dressed with a tie, always walked where he went.”

Adams collected Boone County history and other artifacts. Many of these things seemed trivial, but Adams relished his informal role as Boone County historian and incorporated these artifacts into his work at the Doud Eisenhower Museum and on the Boone County Historical Society Board of Directors.

“My family started a couple banks in Boone and he knew way, way more about it than I did,” Goeppinger said.

He collected so many documents and books in his apartment that people worried the floor may collapse, Goeppinger said.

“When you went up to his apartment you walked in corridors between stacks of periodicals,” Goeppinger said. “They were stacked on steps going up to his apartment."

Keeping a cherished chapter in Boone history alive

Boone had a distant tie to former First Lady Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower, and Adams loved serving as the caretaker to that connection. Doud Eisenhower married Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1916. From 1953 to 1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President, and Doud Eisenhower became the First Lady. She ruled the White House frugally, and was lauded as both a hostess and housekeeper. Guests took note of her charm and the attention she gave them.

Doud Eisenhower was born in a house in Boone in 1896. Three months later her family moved to Cedar Rapids. When she was 6 years old her family settled in Denver.

In 1980 Adams became the curator and director at the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Birthplace Museum. The museum houses many artifacts from her life in her childhood home.

Adams struck up friendships with their grandson David Eisenhower and his wife Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of former President Richard Nixon.

“He just loved history,” Goeppinger said. “He knew everything there was to know about the Eisenhower family.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a World War II hero and presidential icon to many Baby Boomers and their parents. But as time went on it became harder to interest people in this small museum about a First Lady who served the country decades ago, his friend Pins said.

During summers after his 2006 retirement from the Doud Eisenhower Museum, Adams served as the curator of the Higgins Museum of National Bank Notes in Okoboji. The museum preserves and displays banknotes, which were legal currency printed and issued by banks.

“That was Larry Adams,” Pins said with a laugh. “He knew a whole lot of stuff about a whole lot of things that were fascinating, but most people probably didn’t care."

Philip Joens covers public safety and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-443-3347 at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Eisenhower Museum director from Boone, Iowa killed in crash